The Captain And Lime

I’m bustin’ a gusset!

After retiring from United Airlines (at captain seniority #2!) my #2 (of 4) brother Ted took up a new career in musical theater. He always had a gorgeous voice (he used to mimic Mario Lanza so well you couldn’t tell the difference!) but once he began taking it seriously…look out! He’s also got a charming stage presence…and has made it a father/son thing with my darling nephew Jeff.

This is Ted in a production of Damn Yankees, filmed by my #3 bro, Chip.

The national anthem (way to go, bro, out-singing that loud brass! Sheesh!)

and singing “goodbye old girl”

I got up way early, hoping to finish Chernevog edits…went to a site I’ve been to a million times before…and found out the hard way that Avast Antivirus does nothing for spyware. Don’t know how I’ve avoided them for twenty years, but I got zapped good this morning with a nasty little thing call Win7 Security 2012. It grabs hold of your computer and every time you try to open an exe file (like, oh, Windows Explorer?) it gives you a popup you can’t get past telling you you’ve tried to open an infected file and you can’t get rid of it unless you buy this product by clicking on a button which will, of course, install all kinds of icky stuff on your computer.

I didn’t fall for it. Immediately shut my wireless off and went to another computer to figure out what had hit me. But I admit, I’m not the smartest at figuring out which help sites are legit and I was fighting a sick migraine to boot. Fortunately, I’ve got a buddy at on East Coast time by the name of Lynn Abbey who helps folks who like to visit gambling sites get rid of stuff like this all the time, so I called her whining for help.

She had ideas, but first she had her own fires to put out. So…I investigated a bit more, then decided maybe I’d just wait for her advice, took some Excedrine for the migraine, and resurrected my little Dell to continue working on Chernevog. By this time Carolyn was up. She commiserated while having her coffee and brushing Seishi, offered to help, but there really wasn’t much she could do. She’s as dumb as I am about judging the quality of help  sites on the internet. Besides, she shortly thereafter was on the phone with NewYork sorting out the copy edit disaster.

The problem of course is that the same type of people who enjoy zapping you are going to get their giggles giving you just the wrong advice for getting rid of these pesky things, and I really wasn’t in the mood to wade through all the bad advice and commercials for anti-spyware stuff looking for somebody I trusted.

Lynn came through with, as it turned out, excellent instructions for getting rid of this thing from here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/ remove-win-7-security-2012 that involved downloading several files (on a different computer and putting them on a flashdrive) and (somehow) opening them on the infected computer. Evidently it doesn’t always stop you from getting into WindowsExplorer, but I was lucky. I finally managed to open it by right clicking and opening as administrator from…I think it was the start menu, ultimately. Each time I managed it, if I had to do it again, the route had been hacked so I had to find a different option.

It was…interesting.

Finally, with only a couple of restarts of the scan thanks to Sooper Shu’s “help”, I have finally managed to get this buzzard off my computer (have you any idea how long it takes to scan these big disks!)….while working my way through a couple of knotty problems in Chernevog. The book’s not finished (hopefully tomorrow) but I’ve got ComCast’s version of Norton on my computer, (thought they still had Macaffee, which had given me lots of problems) sorted out the disappearing LastPass logins, and have a nice couple of new weapons in my arsenal which hopefully I’ll never have to use again.

OTOH, I’ve decided setting myself deadlines is a surefire way to court at least a week of disaster. So…the updated site is coming…when it comes, complete with Lynn’s Time books, more Rusalka, and maybe even a couple of shorts from yours truly…tho I’m making no promises.

Meantime…a teaser: CC’s new splash page:

Thanks soooo much to my dear friend Barb Akers for sending me the link!

HELP!

I’m on a search for blank acid-free peel and stick labels of a size appropriate for bookplates. I really want to make Closed Circle specific bookplates rather than used the purchased ones to sell on CC. I can find blank peel and stick sheets that they claim are for bookplates, but I don’t see anything about acid free on them.

Anybody out there know where I can find such a thing?

(crawling back under my rock…)

To be so silent. Busy on the redesign of the CC site and covers and editing Chernevog. Back soon. Hugs to everyone!

One woman was singlehandedly responsible, not just for the Tollhouse Chocolate Chip recipe, but Chocolate chips period!

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/tollhouse.htm

I’m going to keep it simple because if I don’t, this will go on for pages.

This is one year where I’m quite literally thankful to be alive. I’m thankful to have the best life partner in the whole world. I’m thankful to have known two of the most wonderfully kitty-persons every birthed and to welcome two of the bestust ever into my life.

And I’m thankful for all of you who have made a this year and so many others just plain terrific.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

This has been an interesting season. I’ve been a huge fan of Ricki and JR since the beginning and always figure they’d be in the mix for the finals. Rob…is a pleasant surprise.

SYTYCD goes far beyond who is the best dancer or who is the most popular, and this season depicts that beautifully. Without saying anything against those who have been eliminated, I think these three are the three who deserve to be in the final. There were better dancers. There were better known celebrities. There were those with moving stories. But the three who faced the mental and physical demands of the show best, IMO, have made it to the final.

JR had, frankly, the least to overcome. He’d already fought his battles both physically and psychologically. He just came on the show and gave us increasingly good dancing and an engaging upbeat mood that permeated the season despite other “stars” who proved less than upbeat in their entire approach to the show.

From the start Ricki had a natural flare for dancing and acting and an amazing will to get all she could from the show personally and a true entertainer’s will give everything she had to her audience. I’ve been a fan of hers since Hairspray and was thrilled to see her new svelt and confident self emerge. Her fear of hurting Derrik is one all us larger ladies can completely understand and she did a really good job of dealing with that, but more than anything else, her hard work and precise technique blending with her ability to project just the right feel for every dance she faced is what set her apart. She is the epitome of the physical and psychological butterfly that makes this show so much fun to watch.

Rob is the huge surprise. I wouldn’t have bet 2 cents on his making the finals, let alone deserving to be there, but he has and does. The poor guy was a psychological mess thanks to his insane family situation. A shy kid who lost his larger than life (thanks to OJ) father suddenly and early, whose sisters dressed him up (ludicrously) in makeup and women’s clothing, whose only direction in life was his deceased father’s desire to see him graduate from his alma mater, whose family was making fools of themselves on a reality TV show…that’s enough to squelch anyone’s personality. This show gave him a chance to do something all on his own being in control of his own destiny and he truly has grown. He did a very creditable job last night. Do I feel he was overscored? Well, yeah. Mostly because he still doesn’t really capture the character he’s supposed to be portraying and it seems to me his choreography is a lot easier than the other two, but considering how far he’s come, I say Bravo. Besides, I suspect the judges look to see the vast majority of viewer votes going to the other two and they wanted to give him his moment.

Well…don’t know how the finals will go tonight, but I find I can be quite content no matter who gets the mirror ball, so I can just sit back and enjoy the show!

Here’s the link for the recipe I (sort of) used. http://recipes.aarp.org/recipes/double-crust-spiced-apple-pie

Now…I’m not an apple pie expert. As a kid, I actively hated them. But that’s changed over the years and a good, spicy cooked apple appeals to me in a way it didn’t back then. Besides, We’ve got an apple tree in the back now, so have to do something with its annual offerings!

Anyway…I decided to give it a try. I went on line looking for recipes and most are pretty similar, but I was intrigued by the handling of the baking (half an hour at a higher temp, then an hour at 350) and crust in this recipe. Plus, it used more spice and suggested a bit of wine or other “spirits” and I thought Captain Morgan might be a good addition to a spicy pie!

I just used a (cheap) store-bought pie crust, and it certainly came out nice and crunchy. I did put the bottom layer into the freezer as she suggested while I mixed the filling, and the lower crust did cook nicely. I also had no milk so I used a bit of egg (suggestion from another recipe) to “glue” the sugar to the crust. (The only real sugar I used was on the crust. For the filling, I used Splenda.) I also took a note from Carolyn’s mom who put a bit of butter on top of the filling before putting the top crust on. Don’t know if that did anything other than add a nice buttery taste, but hey…what’s a few more calories, eh?

I was amused at how high the mound of apples was, only to collapse while the top crust remained this high crunchy mountain. Carolyn says that’s normal, but I thought it was funny. I mean…six apples was a lot!

Hmmmm…..I also upped the spices…basically doubled everything and added extra Splenda. Still didn’t really coat six apples…But it ended up pretty nut-meg heavy for my taste buds. Another time I’d cut back on the nutmeg and maybe put in a little extra clove instead. I love the combo of cinnamon and clove…

I don’t really know if this was a “good” pie or not, but it was tasty.

Not to mention the toy makers…and parents!

Okay…I don’t usually rant about stuff like this, tho I actually have a potentially controversial rant on the male/female issue percolating in my hind brain, but Amazon superseded that rant with one that ticks me off a whole lot more.

Just got a link for the “what’s hot toys”…and it’s enough to make your blood boil.

“toys for girls” Barbies and Barbie accessories and pre-storied plushies. Nothing brain-challenging in the lot.

“toys for boys” Leggo and other construction sets galore.

For that part of the rant, I really don’t think I need to say much else. We’re still stuck in the 50′s marketing mentality. Wake up parents and break this insane cycle!

But…take a closer look at the construction sets! you now have the great joy of paying $50 dollars for a set designed to build one thing! A train or a spaceship…All this specialized stuff with specialized, easily recognizable pieces. Where’s the brain challenge in that? Time was, you got lots of very simple pieces out of which you could build anything you could imagine. It might not look as much like the real thing, you’d have to squint to see the space ship, but that was the part that challenged your imagination. Building it challenged your ability to realize what you visualize. Now…it’s all laid out for you, like a model.

Silver platter much?